Hi, anyone working with reclaimed materials?

[BADMOJO]

Howdy everyone,  What a great site .  Jim told me a while back about this site.  It took me a while to get to it.  So is anyone working with reclaimed woods?  I have been sawing and timberframing with them for over ten years now.  I am a week or two or three from buying a new sawmill.  Any advice?  Thanks Derek

[Minnesota_boy]

Don't wait!  :D 8)

[Sprucegum]

What do you mean by "reclaimed"?
Where are you reclaiming from?

[mark davidson]

the old pine timbers will blow your mind.... I just sawed a few into 3" treads for a circular staircase and everybody on the jobsite loved the look of the resawn beams....
but do get a metal detector and a long, strong wrecking bar.

[Raphael]

I've made good use of my Logosol M7 (www.logosol.com) sawmill for resquaring older and distorted timbers.  If this is your primary focus you won't find a more effective and economical solution.  I've milled through a 1/2" bolt and gone on to finish the cut smoothly and on line... I did suffer a severe loss in cutting speed.

If you plan on turning a lot of reclaimed material into dimensional lumber (flooring etc.) then I'd say get a diesel powered Wood Mizer (30Hp+).  The bandsaw blade will give you the best recovery especially in an already squared cant.

[Kelvin]

Ease of additonal length is a biggie for long beams and what not.  If you plan on just demensioning, a manual bandmill like norwood sells inexpensive, limitless extensions.  Woodmizer gets expensive fast, but is this the main part of the business? 20 hp hand pushed norwood might be $7k new, vs $30k+ for diesel Woodmizer.  I have the Lt40 gas for $25k, and i've used the norwood.  its a very good machine for certain things.  I would strongly recomend used if its not your primary business.  At auction yesterday they sold an lt40 super, $30k+ for $12k here in western mich.  Look at the sawmill exchange for all sorts of used mills, manual to super.  My problem with remilling old barn beams is dulling blades fast.  The dirt and grit get into those open cracks and works havoc on steel.  Maybe carbide?